Fan favorite Ward Burton is a hot commodity in NASCAR again.
Burton, a Virginia native known for for his strong advocacy of wilderness preservation, will return to the NEXTEL Cup Series in 2007 as the driver of Morgan-McClure Motorsports' No. 4 State Water Heaters Chevrolet, a source at the team confirmed Tuesday night.
Burton, who won the Daytona 500 in 2002 driving for Bill Davis Racing, has been a rare sight at racetracks since he parted ways with Haas CNC Racing in 2004 with two races remaining in the season.
The foundation of my racing world shook today, and the way I look at racing — and life — will change forever because of it.
No, the news that arrived as a whisper over the phone in my puny, relatively insignificant cubicle at the RacingOne offices doesn’t involve a startling announcement from a superstar-laden NASCAR team. Aliens didn’t abduct newly crowned champ Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not turn in the keys to his race car and vow to adopt a strictly Amish lifestyle.
This news won’t make headlines at this Web site or any other, but it shattered my sense of what’s important even though it’s about a tiny team that fans aren’t likely to encounter.
Few writers covering racing actually get an opportunity to be part of a race team and spend enough money to build and race a car. I count myself as one of the lucky ones who do. I never write about my novice attempts at dirt-track racing, and the only reason I’m mentioning it now is to relate why this news has changed my outlook on things.
I received word today that a member of our team isn’t feeling so well, and the very second I heard the words, I realized how many tales are never told. Every racer is lucky to have a friend and mentor to guide them — I’m a very, very lucky guy. I knew that, but I never realized it, and, believe me, there is a difference.
My colleagues and I at RacingOne scour the shorelines throughout racing’s place in the media universe, hoping to find the shell that produces the story everyone will want to see today. Like the drivers and teams we cover, we’re competitive — we want to tell the next tale.
I’d be lying to you and myself if I promised to spend every waking hour of my days and nights looking for those stories, but I will promise this: When I encounter racing personalities as entertaining and engaging as the ones I’m lucky enough to call my friends and mentors, you’ll be the first to know about it.
If you hear about them before I do, let me know so I can make sure everyone else gets at least a glimpse at them.
A smart general manager or team owner evaluates their lineup at least once a year. Most are looking to see if the return warrants keeping folks around, basically, to determine if the future prospects are worth any risk involved, the work it will take to polish the talent or the headache involved with dealing with a prima donna.
Putting that in terms of what you’d do with NASCAR drivers (if you were in Rick Hendricks or Jack Roush’s shoes) can provide you with at least 15 minutes of amusement during this holiday season.
All it takes is a little imagination, idle time in the cranial unit and a willingness to think like George Steinbrenner. Keep a couple of things in mind: It’s your five-car team. You can do whatever you want (even break NASCAR’s rule on team limits), but you have to explain your thinking.
As for me, I’m hiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. right out of the gate — 10 years, $150 million or whatever it takes. If I do that, everyone is watching my team no matter what I do. Oh, and don’t forget, even with all the hype, he’s one of the best in the game.
From there, I’m hiring Tony Stewart. Having NASCAR’s two most eligible bachelors definitely keeps things interesting at company picnics and “holiday gatherings,” and Stewart will win races and championships. If Stewart plays hardball during negotiations, I go get Kasey Kahne for the same reasons.
Heading down the seniority ladder, I go get Denny Hamlin. In a NASCAR world filled with illusions and high-speed card tricks, Hamlin is the ace up my sleeve. I definitely don’t tell his agent I’m willing to pay whatever it takes to get him. If Hamlin absolutely refuses to work with me, I hire that round-faced kid from “A Christmas Story” to beat him up — then go hire Carl Edwards and make him promise to teach a fat guy how to do that backflip.
My stealthy move is to grab Scott Riggs. This guy can drive with the best of them and, if the fans really knew him, he’d beat Dale Jr. as the NEXTEL Cup Series’ most popular driver. If I don’t get Riggs, I go after Elliott Sadler and make him take a friend (who shall remain nameless or she’ll kill me West Coast style) out for some dinner.
Rounding out the team would be a guy named Mike Duncan. Fans on the West Coast will recognize the name as a repeat champion (2004 and 2005) in the NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series. I’m not sure any of the other guys could talk baseball with me, so as a former minor league player and Nebraska Cornhusker, he’s my fifth driver. If Duncan decides spending that much time on the East Coast will sicken him, I go hire Danica Patrick (remember, it’s MY team).
Now, I know what you’re thinking: What about Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch?
Well, I’m not hiring Johnson or Gordon until they prove themselves (I’m laughing, too), and Harvick will want DeLana to sit on the pit box — I’m a big guy and there will be no room up there. I’d have hired Kenseth if he popped Gordon after getting shoved, and it is tough not to hire a guy who’s kind to “little people.” Kyle Busch looks too much like the young Spock from one of the Star Trek movies, and (I know it’s not logical) that creeps me out a bit.
As for guys like Jamie McMurray (let Benny Parsons hire him), Brian Vickers (can you imagine what he’ll be like on Red Bull at Talladega?) and Martin Truex Jr. (he always looks tired), you hire them for your team if you want ’em.
Would you?
If Dale Earnhardt Jr. ends up losing the championship by 10 points or less, the fingers of blame from the masses in the Earnhardt nation will point in every direction.
Millions will consider taking up voodoo with the intent of torturing Brian Vickers for the travesty at Talladega Superspeedway that cost their hero 81 points, while ignoring that Jimmie Johnson became Vickers’ victim, too. Of course, Vickers’ defense team would present footage of Earnhardt’s Busch Series victory over Carl Edwards at Michigan International Speedway in August and call it a “Training Video.”
Some Earnhardt fans will stammer a bit while explaining the spin at Martinsville Speedway in October that cost their hero 49 points. Earnhardt pointed the finger at himself in that one, saying he over-adjusted the brake bias in the car, which caused him real trouble when he got impatient.
Another mistake came last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, when he cost himself a shot a victory while handing the checkered flag to Tony Stewart and second place to Johnson. Everyone in the world wondered why he stayed on the track when pit road opened during that last caution period — that’s because everyone knows Atlanta’s racing surface is as kind to tires as most race fans are to boiled peanuts.
“I was thinking surely we weren’t going to pit, but everybody’s looking like they were going to pit,” Earnhardt said in laughingly describing the leaders’ roll out of Turn 4. “I pulled way up the track trying to be like, ‘Yo, everybody — no — up here. Don’t pit.’”
That maneuver left him out in the cold night air — without new tires everyone else would have.
“They just went on, and I wasn’t in any position to go to pit road,” Earnhardt said. “I’d have tore the left front off the car if I had drove off the racetrack at that angle.”
When the green flag waved with 11 laps to go, Earnhardt had no chance. While Stewart’s victory didn’t necessarily hinder Earnhardt’s chances at the championship, Johnson passing him for second might. That pass meant a 10-point swing between those two drivers.
“I was sitting there thinking, ‘I guess I’m going to have to do this by myself. I wish I had got tires,’” Earnhardt said. “I wanted to get tires if the leaders had gotten tires.”
One question everyone watching wanted to ask: Why didn’t you?
“It was a long race, and, maybe … the duration of the race kind of got to my decision-making process a little bit,” Earnhardt said.
With three races left to decide the championship and Earnhardt positioned 84 points behind Matt Kenseth (who Earnhardt did a great job beating by inches in Atlanta for third place), other questions remain for Earnhardt fans: Does Dale Earnhardt Jr. have what it will take to beat the others for the title?
If he doesn’t, in which direction will the fingers of blame point?
Motocross legend Ricky Carmichael is now a development project for a NASCAR team.
That statement has so many double meanings that it would take a week to sort them. Let’s start by explaining that Carmichael’s team owner, Bobby Ginn, has a history of development projects in Central Florida. If you’ve shopped for a new, upscale home in Orlando, Daytona Beach or Flagler County, you’ve probably seen his company’s work. Some of the projects have drawn less enthusiasm than others (that’s a nice way of putting it).
Ginn bought his stake in the team from Nelson Bowers earlier this year, and the team is making a lot of noise in the NASCAR community. Again, some of it is drawing less enthusiasm than others.
A few weeks ago, Ginn’s team convinced one of NASCAR’s all-time best, Mark Martin, to lead MB2 into the NEXTEL Cup Series future in 2007 by driving the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet for 22 races. He’ll split time with rookie Regan Smith, while Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin drive the No. 13 and 14 Chevrolets, respectively.
The team announced last week that Carmichael is on board now, with plans to put him in some Late Model races at Central Florida short tracks before dabbling in some ARCA and Craftsman Truck Series ventures. Of course, Martin will serve as what amounts to Carmichael’s private tutor, and, with him as a teacher, the future may be very bright.
There are some serious issues and questions, though. As any short-track fan can tell you, Late Model stock cars are NOT toys. They are very powerful, very expensive machines. I’d bet any of the existing Late Model racers facing Carmichael will not take too kindly to his education if it means more late nights of beating, banging, cutting and twisting the rookie’s mistakes out of their cars.
What would they say about the prodigy? How will they react to someone climbing into a powerful class like Late Model with little (or no) experience? Do they have a right to object?
Another question, and one that may point more to the symptoms of what many fans say is wrong at racing’s top levels, is: How many quality drivers (like Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards or Clint Bowyer) will we never see because of projects like Ricky Carmichael? What makes anyone think that Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart could jump on a motocross bike and compete with the likes of Bubba Stewart?
Carmichael seems to have the right attitude about things, and he IS incredibly talented, but driving a stock car is not as easy as it looks. Let’s hope Martin can keep Ginn’s latest development project on course.
In a song dating to NASCAR’s early days, Eddie Fisher belted out “You Gotta Have Heart” in 1955 — the song became a classic.
Radio DJs put the recording in cold storage long before Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson wore their first diapers (me, too, by the way), but I couldn’t help laughing after the MRN broadcast from Talladega when the crackly AM station quickly went back to its oldies format and played the song after Sunday’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Coincidence? Probably, but it sure sounded like a voice from the cosmos offering a message to those battling for NASCAR’s biggest prize.
I realize Earnhardt Jr. couldn’t do anything Sunday to prevent what ended up costing him his sixth victory at Talladega — neither could Johnson, who would have joined Earnhardt Jr. in closing the gap on point leader Jeff Burton with a second-place finish. Brian Vickers had one move to make, and he made it. In chess terms, that meant checkmate for Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson.
What bothers me a little is the lack of heat rising from Earnhardt Jr. or Johnson. Sure, they kind of kicked the dirt, pursed their lips and offered what amounted to “Aw Shucks” quotes in explaining things, but I’m left wondering: When will one of them show us he has a pulse?
Vickers did what he did because he doesn’t fear (or, apparently, respect) either one of them. Back in the day, if Vickers had done that to an Earnhardt, Johnson, Waltrip or Yarborough, there would have been a reckoning — or at least someone with his hat in his hand offering apologies.
A chance at NASCAR immortality hangs before them (and others) with six races left in the season. With Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch tied for ninth only 185 points out of the lead, none of the 10 drivers in The Chase is out of contention, contrary to what anybody says. In 2004, Johnson closed a gap of 247 points with six races left and lost the title by eight points to Kurt Busch, which proves it can be done.
So, with a little more than a month left in the season, the melodious tenor tells us what it takes to win The Chase. Now, who has the moxie, the drive … the heart … to drive out and snatch the championship ring from the others?